Life Lessons Learned at ‘Mother’s’ Knee

Dolores McCoy’s one-woman show “Your Mother Should Know” at the Two Roads Theatre is subtitled “A daughter’s journey through life, death and all the fun in between.” You wouldn’t think one could find much humor recounting one’s mother dying from a debilitating disease like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (often called “Lou Gehrig’s disease”). Yet McCoy, under the sensitive direction of Beverly Sanders, gently elicits laughter between the tears.

McCoy recounts her life at home as the youngest daughter in a three-girl, three-boy household--not quite the Brady Bunch, although her mother was a stay-at-home mom. Her father wanted his daughters to have a trade--at least before they got married.

His daughters, however, had different ideas.

McCoy found freedom in New York under her older sister’s guidance and eventually met and married a lawyer. She and her husband decide to move to California, but McCoy’s mother develops ALS soon after.

As caretaker, McCoy makes some blunders while learning more about her parents and her maternal self. Her mother carps. Her father, once the proud protector, learns to accept the helplessness when the family is forced to hire a professional nurse. Not all the siblings are equally evoked; only the foibles of her shopaholic older sister are detailed.

And when the laughter subsides, McCoy waxes philosophical--wondering what her mother knew and what, by becoming her parent’s caretaker, she learned about being a mother. This is a touching personal and personable account with a buoyant and optimistic ending.

*

“Your Mother Should Know,” Two Roads Theatre, 4348 Tujunga Ave., Studio City. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Dec. 15. $12. (323) 650-7305. Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes.

‘Voodoo’ Casts a Confusing Spell

Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group at the ZJU Theatre Group space sets a sliver of a play, “Voodoo Orleans,” in New Orleans, the city of sin, in the 19th century.

Written by Jason Bold and Rachel Bourne, “Voodoo Orleans” tells the story of a riverboat prostitute named Josie (Bourne), now madam of one of the city’s finest bordellos, and how she attempts to flee from her cruel pimp, Lawrence (Steve Humphreys) to be with her lover, Robert (Bold).

Told by the mysterious Voodoo Queen Malvina (Baadja Lyne), the play has flashbacks to the histories of the main characters. It also includes an ironic false ending before it comes to a happy conclusion.

The play needs some development--too many times the script uses the narrator to tell us things that could be shown. Some issues remain unresolved, such as whether the sex, illusion, power and fantasies fanned by love for sale are things to be celebrated or despised.

*

“Voodoo Orleans,” ZJU Theatre Group, 4850 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8:30 p.m. Ends Dec. 8. $10. (818) 202-4120. Running time: 1 hour.

‘Larger Than Life’ Could Use Harder Edge

Two brothers, tired of being small-time mobsters, want to break into show business. They get their chance when two independent movie producers select them to play, well, themselves.

As the two brothers, Angelo and Rico, George Palermo and Alex Corrado are charming characters in search of a better script.

Writer-director Nathan Gottlieb’s play, “Larger Than Life,” at the Hudson Mainstage develops some of the characters, but the premise isn’t convincing and the flow of the script is choppy.

As director of this Omrelap Productions and Hudson Mainstage presentation, Gottlieb accentuates the negatives--scene transitions are awkward. The female characters aren’t well-developed.

The dialogue of the shady female producers, Beth (Angela Madden) and Chris (Wendy Allyn), doesn’t have the fun linguistic tumble of Angelo and Rico’s. The fate of all the characters doesn’t have a decisive tone because the playwright hasn’t built up the inner dynamics.

We have bad guys and bad gals and a pretentious pup of a director (Justin Lioi), but for whom to cheer, for whom to mourn and for whom to hiss?

If Gottlieb meant this to be a dark comedy (judging from the bodies that pile up backstage) then the words need a sharper edge to cut more deeply into our hearts and minds.

Palermo, Corrado and Charles Sammarco (as their older and wiser brother Willie) all inhabit their roles with a watchable naturalness.

Their performances are polished, but the script doesn’t give them a setting in which to truly shine.

*

“Larger Than Life,” 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. (310) 289-2999. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

Jana J. Monji